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Dashboard (management information systems)

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A digital dashboard, also known as an enterprise dashboard or executive dashboard, is a business management tool used to visually ascertain the status (or "health") of a business enterprise though key business indicators. Digital dashboards use visual, at-a-glance displays of data pulled from disparate business systems to provide warnings, action notices, next steps, and summaries of business conditions.

Types of dashboards

Based on the metaphor of the instrument panel in a car, the computer, or "digital" version of a dashboard provides a business manager with the input necessary to "drive" the business. Devices such as red/green/yellow lights, alerts, drill-downs, summaries, graphics such as bar charts, pie charts ,bullet graphs,sparklines and gauges are usually set in a portal-like environment that is often role-driven and customizable.

Digital dashboards may be laid out to track the flows inherent in the business processes that they monitor. Graphically, users may see the high-level processes and then drill down into low level data. This level of detail is often buried deep within the corporate enterprise and otherwise unavailable to the senior executives.

Specialized dashboards may track all corporate functions. Examples include human resources, recruiting, sales, operations, security, information technology, project management, customer relationship management and many more departmental dashboards. For a collection of enterprise dashboard screenshots see The Dashboard Spy, a blog dedicated to monitoring digital dashboards.

Digital dashboard projects involve business units as the driver and the information technology department as the enabler. The success of digital dashboard projects often rely on the correct selection of metrics to monitor. Key performance indicators, balanced scorecards, sales performance figures — these are just some of the content appropriate on business dashboards.

History

Historically, the idea of digital dashboards follows the work in the 1970s with the study of decision support systems. In the late 1990s with the surge of the web, digital dashboards as we know them today began appearing. Many systems were home built as the emphasis on efficiency became a passion. Today, digital dashboard technology is available "out-of-the-box" with many software providers on the scene. Certain companies however still continue to do in-house development and maintainance of dashboard applications. Like GE Aviation has developed a proprietary software/portal called as "Digital Cockpit" to monitor the trends in aircraft spare parts business.

Benefits of digital dashboards

Most organizations have various departments all contributing to its overall success and thus it is important to be able to assess the progress of each department. Digital dashboards, which are a type of executive information system, allow managers to do just that. To gauge exactly how well an organization is performing overall, digital dashboards allow you to capture and report specific data points from each department within the organization, thus providing a "snapshot" of performance.

Some benefits to using digital dashboards include:

  • Elimination of duplicate data entry.
  • Ability to identify and correct negative trends.
  • Measure efficiencies/inefficiencies.
  • Ability to generate detailed reports showing new trends.
  • Increase overall revenues.
  • Ability to make more informed decisions based on collected BI (business intelligence)
  • Align strategies and organizational goals.

Aerospace Digital Dashboards

The aerospace industry has a long history of designing and refining cockpit display systems. In the U.S. the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have long histories of research into the ergonomic aspects of cockpit design and have conducted extensive investigations of airline industry accidents. Many cycles of primary research and subsequent application of findings have occurred over the history of aviation, involving such disciplines as: Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Perception, Human computer interaction, Human-Factors Engineering, and Ergonomics, as they colletively apply to aerospace safety.

Modern aircraft designs have rapidly adopted a fully digital “glass cockpit.” In current systems, instruments and gauges, including complex navigational map displays, are constructed using a standard user interface markup language known as ARINC 661. This standard defines the interface between an independent cockpit display system, generally manufactured by one entity; and the various user applications needing dynamic access to it, such as gauges, instruments, controls, etc., often made by different manufacturers. The separation between the overall display system, and the various applications driving it, allows for considerable specialization and independence.

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